CONCERNS REMAIN AS SUPER STRIKE DEFEATS VALE
ENCOURAGED or alarmed? Port Vale supporters may have been wrestling with contrasting emotions after this defeat.
The first loss, but best performance of Darrell Clarke’s three games in charge suggested he is improving the side, he’s sorting them out defensively and, were it not for a stunning long-range strike from Liam O’neil five minutes from time, Vale would have been reflecting on a hard-earned point at home to the league leaders. So, there’s that.
The concern, because maybe ‘alarm’ is overdoing it, is that this defeat left Vale in 20th. Yes, still eight points clear of the relegation zone, but, still, 20th! There aren’t official entry requirements to a relegation scrap, but Vale have probably been admitted.
Eight points is still a sizeable gap to secondfrom-bottom Barrow, even though they have two games in hand. So, it would only take a couple of quick wins for us to look forward to finishing forgettably in midtable, focusing on the huge rebuilding job in the summer while Clarke auditions the players over the remaining games.
But unless…let’s be positive and say ‘until’ those wins arrive, the nagging doubt about Vale’s Football League status remains.
It should never have come to this, not with Vale fifth in the table at the end of October, but here we are scanning the table and seeing, with some relief, that Barrow were beaten 1-0 at Bolton and bottomclub Grimsby lost 1-0 at Harrogate.
Still, 20th in the table is also the point where Clarke can expect questions such as the, ‘are you looking over your shoulder?’ which cropped up early after Saturday’s defeat.
“Always,” he said. “When I came in the building to be honest with you. When I came in the building I knew straight away that we were in a dogfight. The team had won something like four games in 23 or 24 games so I knew what I was coming into. But we have more than enough to climb the table.”
Vale have taken 15 points from 21 games since the end of October, the sort of statistic that will give the dwindling number of teams below them some hope.
But they came close to a point from this game, and maybe could have been inspired to take all three had Kurtis Guthrie not been foiled by keeper Callum Burton after going through one-on-one in the opening stages.
To be fair to the visitors, Scott Brown had to make an even better stop, plunging to his left to deny 24-goal top scorer Paul Mullin from a header 20 minutes from time.
We’ve got used to the extraordinary as well as the routine stuff from Capability Brown, but even he had no chance when the ball broke to O’neil to wallop it into the top corner from 25 yards.
The goal deserved to win the game, but Vale deserved better for a defensive effort in which the back three of Nathan Smith, Leon Legge and Adam Crookes looked composed and confident, Zak Mills did a sound job in for the rested James Gibbons at right-wing back and Tom Conlon impressed after dropping into the holding midfield role vacated by the injured Luke Joyce.
The trouble was Vale didn’t create a huge amount after Guthrie’s early chance.
That’s understandable against the leaders, but is a cause for the concern after the grim goalless draw at home to Stevenage on Tuesday.
Clarke’s well aware of that. Like most managers coming into a struggling team, he has made sorting out the defence the priority. But he made clear 3-5-2 isn’t necessarily his system for the foreseeable future, and his side have to create more whatever team and formation he picks.
He said: “The squad has
been build for a 4-3-3, I think everyone is aware of that and understands that. I think what we are seeing over the last couple of games are the three look pretty strong defensively. We maybe need to get a bit more going forward – which we have been working on.
“I thought we were a little bit better than the other night. So we will keep working on things, but it is certainly not set in stone, that’s for sure.”
Having kicked off his reign with a 1-1 draw at Leyton Orient, the Stevenage snore-draw and now this unfortunate defeat, Clarke’s immediate task doesn’t get any easier with Tuesday’s trip to ninth-placed Salford and Saturday’s game at Cheltenham who are third.
But Vale beat both those sides at home back when they were play-off contenders under John Askey in the autumn so let’s not write them off.
Clarke has inherited a squad that he feels has too many injuries and plenty of fitness concerns, but has the quality to climb the table.
He added: “Yes there is, without a shadow of a doubt. Everybody is aware there is enough quality in there. There are a few to many on the treatment table, so if we can get them back fit… I am having to nurse a few players through it at the minute.
“Like Devante Rodney comes off because I am worried about him getting an injury. With Gibbo, it’s three games in a week… some of the boys, their fitness levels don’t look up to doing three games in a week.
“That can be because they have come back from injuries or not fit enough in general. So, we will keep working away with them on those sort of levels and hopefully get one or two back as we go along.
“Bris (Shaun Brisley) trained on Thursday and Danny Whitehead trained as well, so hopefully we will get one or two more bodies back at the right time.”
He plans to be working with a fitter group next season, but his immediate concern is getting Vale up the table and ensuring his first full season at Vale Park is in charge of a Football League club.
He added: “You come in, this is the group and the only thing you can do about it is the here and now. What I will say is I pride myself…. I like my fit teams, I like a highenergetic team and we are not quite that at the minute.”
HOME WOE: Cambridge striker Joe Ironside, top, fires in an effort at the Port Vale goal, while, left, Cambridge’s Liam O’neil runs off to celebrate scoring a late winner. Right: Port Vale manager Darrell Clarke shows his frustration after a chance goes begging as he remains winless from his three matches in charge of the Valiants.